Prom 72 (5.9.12): John Adams – Nixon in China

[edashtav]

Well in reply to both SA and helio, I really fail to see why, then, NIC fails this 'test' that has been imposed. Adams clearly has his own musical voice, and shows it to fine effect in this opera. And I'll repeat that I consider the libretto to be amongst the finest of the twentieth century.

You're right A.I.C., the libretto is excellent carrying the story forward with concision and momentum.

[Flosshilde]

Well I'll sign in as one of the admirers of this opera.

Me too, having heard (most of) it for the first time on Wednesday. I would very much like to see/hear it live in the theatre.

I wonder if Serial Apologist can give us examples of twentieth century opera which progressed musical thought in its harmonies, textures and rhythms?

I think 'progressing' any art form can be by either developing new ideas, or consolidating & developing existing ideas.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

in what way does Bluebeard's Castle make your case? Good opera, but how is the music progressive in terms of its rhythms or harmonic idioms (the 'measure of good opera' SA requires)? Everything in it, in those terms, had been done outside opera previously by Bartok.

Which works by Bartok written before 1911 demonstrate this, A_I_C?

Same goes for the Weill, ... Schoenberg, Janacek, and Berg operas that I know.

I am unaware of any work by Janacek written before 1904 that shows the same daring in terms of harmony & rhythmic language as that shown in Jenufa. (Nor do I think that Weill's First Symphony or his Violin Concerto demonstrate the harmonic/rhythmic language of Mahoganny.) As for Schoenberg, where, before Moses und Aron, is there anything like the use of combinatorial polyphony that Arnie discovered in that work - a discovery that changed the way Musicians think about Music? Or (more prosaic) the rhythms of the Dance Around the Golden Calf - rhythms which simulataneously communicate the frenzy of the people losing their way and show (by the wrong-footed metrical displacements) that this will all end in tears. Berg using multiple Row derivations before Lulu?

EDIT: Sorry; reading this in cold black & white, a much more prissy tone seems to emerge from what I wrote which I didn't intend: I am genuinely interested to hear which works you would nominate.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

I'm interested in SA's nominations in answer to my 38.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

On second thought, I was responding to SA's

the pro-Adams following here is that the latter seem content with music composed today marking little or no advance on where harmonic and rhythmic idioms were around 100 years ago

and I'm now bored with any response.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm now bored with any response.

My apologies.

[Bryn]

There have been a few comments re. borrowings for Stravinsky. The most obvious of these is surely the near quote form the Symphony in Three Movements, not that long before Alice Goodman's Libretto makes reference to scorched earth tactics. I wonder if the Adams's reference to the Symphony in Three Movemnents is just perhaps entirely intentional, and relevant? O.k, the chronology is out, in that the scorched earth events which so impacted on Stravinsky related to the war against the Japanese occupation of China, rather than the battle between the Communists and Nationalists, but it seems to clear a connection to me.

[jayne lee wilson]

Fascinating, Bryn - Spotters Badge for that one - even if I didn't hear it as quite so clear-cut.

At first I thought you meant the Act 1/Scene 3 aria ("Ladies and Gentlemen") for Chou-en-lai, ref. to "burn their standing crop"; hearing this dark, smouldering piece and then the bright, almost chirpy 2/2 chorus where "scorched earth" is mentioned, I marvelled again at the expressive range of both vocals and orchestral colours in the work. And at the inability of some to hear it...

It must be The Shock of the New.

[Bryn]

Sorry about the typos, etc. I'm in need of a good night's sleep. I can't even concentrate on The Thick of It. Still, I have set the timer for the HD version, later tonight. Perhaps I will be able to take it in tomorrow night.

[heliocentric]

I marvelled again at the expressive range of both vocals and orchestral colours in the work. And at the inability of some to hear it...

It must be The Shock of the New.

No, Jayne, there's no shock at all. It's very colourful, but so is a packet of cornflakes.

[Bryn]

It's quite shocking, the way Adams fails to compose the way some would prescribe for him. How dare he go his own sweet way!

[jayne lee wilson]

No, Jayne, there's no shock at all. It's very colourful, but so is a packet of cornflakes.

Trouble is Helio., you're too sweeping, never dealing with individual works in any detail... have you ever opened yourself up to the sly, slip-sliding gently jazzy Eros Piano (inspired by Takemitsu's riverrun, Bill Evans and Paul Crossley)... or been hooked by Gnarly Buttons, jazzily catchy Clarinet Concerto (inspired by, inter alia, Benny Goodman, Mozart and farmyard animals (complete with mooing cow in the second movement)? But it's also, with the Chamber Symphony a highly original response to the kammermusik of Schoenberg, Hindemith, Mihaud etc....

Adams is very self-aware about what feeds in - in notes to Grand Pianola music he says that it "could only have been conceived by someone who had grown up surrounded by the detritus of late-20thC recorded music"... "Beethoven and Rakhmaninov soak in the same warm bath with Ives, Liberace, Wagner, The Supremes and Sousa.." Which doesn't mean that is all the piece consists of. It doesn't sound like any of them - experienced as a whole - "engaging with Adams' muse", as Bryn said.

Modern or New music doesn't have to be solemn to be serious (cf Birtwistle, The Second Mrs Kong), as a comment on its cultural moment. And isn't the very notion of "progress" or "progressive" in art highly suspect anyway? Progress from what, to what? At any given moment the raw materials lie around for an artist to create with. There is no longer a "shared" musical language such as Haydn and Mozart composed in - or rather against. The challenge for the listener is to be wide open to the musical styles of the past and present but - to be able to hear when a composer makes something new out of them.

One or two dismissive hearings isn't usually enough (it isn't usually enough for me...)

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree when you mention the Chamber Symphony, JLW, and when it was first heard I had the mistaken idea that it represented a new direction. However...

And isn't the very notion of "progress" or "progressive" in art highly suspect anyway? Progress from what, to what?

Well, from Bruckner's first to his eighth symphony, for starters! and we could go on to consider the longer historical sweep: progress from what to what can be described, and illustrated in terms of expanding the realms of human experience to be expressed, and the discovering and making available of means whereby this becomes possible, rather than having to take refuge in a past that has been depassed, but, in the case of some, never taken on board.

[heliocentric]

Trouble is Helio., you're too sweeping, never dealing with individual works in any detail... have you ever opened yourself up to the sly, slip-sliding gently jazzy Eros Piano (inspired by Takemitsu's riverrun, Bill Evans and Paul Crossley)... or been hooked by Gnarly Buttons, jazzily catchy Clarinet Concerto (inspired by, inter alia, Benny Goodman, Mozart and farmyard animals (complete with mooing cow in the second movement)? But it's also, with the Chamber Symphony a highly original response to the kammermusik of Schoenberg, Hindemith, Mihaud etc....

Adams is very self-aware about what feeds in - in notes to Grand Pianola music he says that it "could only have been conceived by someone who had grown up surrounded by the detritus of late-20thC recorded music"... "Beethoven and Rakhmaninov soak in the same warm bath with Ives, Liberace, Wagner, The Supremes and Sousa.." Which doesn't mean that is all the piece consists of. It doesn't sound like any of them - experienced as a whole - "engaging with Adams' muse", as Bryn said.

Modern or New music doesn't have to be solemn to be serious (cf Birtwistle, The Second Mrs Kong), as a comment on its cultural moment. And isn't the very notion of "progress" or "progressive" in art highly suspect anyway? Progress from what, to what? At any given moment the raw materials lie around for an artist to create with. There is no longer a "shared" musical language such as Haydn and Mozart composed in - or rather against. The challenge for the listener is to be wide open to the musical styles of the past and present but - to be able to hear when a composer makes something new out of them.

One or two dismissive hearings isn't usually enough (it isn't usually enough for me...)

Jayne, you're being just a bit patronising here. I don't know how you can say I don't deal with individual works because such (and Nixon in China in particular) are mentioned in almost all my posts to this thread. I've listened extensively to Adams' work and my default attitude to music I don't know is not in the least dismissive. Also I am quite aware of what Adams says about his music, that modern music doesn't have to be solemn, that there's no common practice in contemporary composition and what the possible challenges to listeners might be. My opinion of Adams' music is based on knowledge, not lack of knowledge: I've taken this music seriously and the result is I really don't like it, however inconceivable that might seem.

[bluestateprommer]

There have been a few comments re. borrowings for Stravinsky. The most obvious of these is surely the near quote form the Symphony in Three Movements....

I'd not noticed that before, but in retrospect, I see it. Good catch.

I concur with how splendidly this opera Prom came off, from catching it on iPlayer. The one small quirk was that when Kathleen Kim dropped the f-bomb in Act III, it seemed slightly weak tea compared to the Met HD-cast. But in the latter, admittedly, she was in full costume and part of a full production. Also, one small broadcast disappointment was at the very end, when they cut away from the radio broadcast just before Alice Goodman took her bow with Adams and the artists. The people in the hall that night who saw the whole curtain call were very fortunate to have witnessed that. I remember reading in the New York Times review of the Metropolitan Opera production that AG took a bow on the first night in NYC.